General Archive

A few new misc photos were uploaded. Check them out at the gallery.

After almost 8 years (about 7 years and 11 months) I have fullfiled my goal in putting over 100,000 miles on my car. I know it sounds odd. Not everyone wants to put that many miles on their vehicle. For me, it’s just a goal I’ve wanted to reach for quite a while. Now, if my car lasts another 100,000 I may need to call Mazda and get some face time.

Last Saturday Juli and I ended up in jail. It happened around 10am. Fortunately we didn’t have the kids with us as we set out that morning.

We were driving downtown…and to make a long story short (and without going into any detail), we ended up at the Sedgwick County Detention Facitlity. There, we were escorted to Booking by a Sedgwick County Sheriff. As we entered, there was a fine funk in the air. There we encountered men and women of all kinds packed within the holding cells. Each one’s eyes staring out at us. After leaving the “mug-shot area” we headed towards our destination on the second floor.

Oh, did I mention we were on a group tour of the jail?

Juli’s professor at Newman University (Major Danny Bardezbain) works during the day as Sheriff of the Sedgwick County Detention Facility. He was gracious enough to give us (and several other students in the class) a personal tour of prison life. And let me say, in prison, you have no life. All freedoms are completely stripped away.

We walked through several “pods” (or areas of grouped prisoners). Prisoners spend just about every hour of the day within a dormatory type setting (unless they go to group activities like obtaining a GED, church, AA, Anger Mangement, etc…). Some pods have open beds, with bunks lined up next to each other. Other pods confine prisoners into their own cell with a common area to sit, watch tv and play cards.

Amidst all the prisoners in each pod sat a single, alert, Sheriff’s Officer…with cameras on him/her at all times. From this center console this officer controled everything. TV, lights, cell doors, and telephones. Need more toilet paper? You’d better ask first. Need to use the phone? Better ask first. In other words, prisoners had better ask the guard for permission to do anything.

The last place we visited while touring the prison was Master Control. Yes, the name says it all. This 4-person podular room controled everything including lights, elevators, intercoms, sliding doors, cameras, etc… Oh, and to add even more power to their status, they have the power to control any guard’s pod station within the prison…at any time. Basically, these 4 Master Controllers are the gods of the entire prison…so don’t even think of escaping.

After seeing only a portion of the prison that took up two city blocks, we were released 4 hours later. Those 4 hours enlightened our minds against a life of crime. Personally, I enjoy my freedom.

Amidst the bugs, food, relaxation and family, I managed to squeeze in a few photos along the way. We spent alot of time at the zoo, at bar-b-ques and driving. Take a look at the new albums documenting our 4-day weekend. I particularly enjoyed experimenting with the long exposure night shots of the fireworks and using the macro lens to show the wonders of nature. Enjoy!

After being completely impressed with Coudal Partners’ SHHH! Cards, I had the idea of making a set of cards that expresses my distaste for a bad parking job.

Parking Awareness & Reforming Kinship (P.A.R.K.) is a simple concept. Download these cards. Print them off. Cut them out. Stick them in your car. The next time you pull into a parking lot and can’t park because some yahoo has taken two spots, slip them one of these cards and voice your anger.

Not literally of course…but definitely figuratively.
Prices are on the rise. And for what reason? Your guess is as good as mine (or anyone elses for that matter). Within the past year gas has peaked and dropped several times. During the Hurrican Disaster it finally came to an all-time high (so high that I dare not mention it). But why spike now…is Easter such a well traveled holiday that it deserves the standard “Holiday Gas Price Spike” that Memorial Day gets? Have the recent tornado rampages across Illinois destroyed the only inland oil ports (uh…oil ports in Illinois?). Without a rational explanation from CNN, I can only suspect the CEO of Exxon needs a fourth summer-house.

I realize it’s been about a month since my last post. The site has gone through some transformations (of which you probably can’t see). The first big transition was the hosting. I’ve switched hosts to AN Hosting where I can get a ton of space for a little bit of money. So, for the past few weeks, that’s been changing behind the scenes of the site. In the process I’ve had to change file names, etc… on the site…and some of the files were giving me grief, but all is well now.

Check out my new Works area. Some new additions to this area can be seen in the Logo Design section.

I headed down to the post office on the way to work Wednesday morning…that’s when the morning took a turn for the worse. Nothing really happened, although in my mind I like to think I verbally abused the mailman.

There were only two people in line…including me. There are about seven windows at this post office…and only one of them was open. The lady at the counter had several boxes, letters and envelopes to send out and I could tell this was going to take a while. But I stood in line like a mindless robot thinking that some other postal service representative would open another window. I saw other employees walking around, coming to the front, filling out forms and walking back out of the room.

So I waited. And waited. And…yeah, I waited. Ten minutes (and a conversation between the postal employee and the lady that was mailing every piece of mail she ever owned) later, I picked up my three pieces of mail and walked out. It was only at this time did the postal employee feel the need to ask if I needed something as I opened the door. What nerve.